Nigel Farage will not be thrilled to learn that Neil Hamilton has come top of his Welsh Assembly list following a ballot of members:

Mid & West Wales:

Neil HAMILTON

North Wales:

Nathan GILL

South Wales East:

Mark RECKLESS

Nige had sought to nobble Hamilton’s election bid, using a series of meetings in January and February to try to browbeat the UKIP NEC into rubber stamping his own list. The NEC refused to play ball and instead allowed the members to decide, meaning that the candidates Farage didn’t want to come top, have done. UKIP Kremlinologists see this as a quite significant challenge to the leader. Think Nigel is probably right about Hamilton though…

Quote of the Day

Dominic Raab wrote in his letter of resignation…

“This is, at its heart, a matter of public trust,” he told the PM, concluding: “I cannot reconcile the terms of the proposed deal with the promises we made to the country in our manifesto at the last election… I believe that the regulatory regime proposed for Northern Ireland presents a very real threat to the integrity of the United Kingdom. I cannot support an indefinite backstop arrangement, where the EU holds a veto over our ability to exit…”